Virginia freshman KT Harrell has old-school gifts

Dave Fairbank, dfairbank@dailypress.com | 247-4637

For evidence that KT Harrell isn’t the typical teenage basketball standout, consider Exhibits A and B:In an era marked by dunks and long-range shooting, the Virginia freshman operates most comfortably and effectively in the area between the rim and 3-point line.Harrell committed to the Cavaliers and new coach Tony Bennett before ever setting foot on the grounds.Both facts are tied to his upbringing — a father whose lessons were rooted in old-school basketball, and devoutly faithful parents who gave their oldest son the support and confidence to follow his instincts.“I know he’s still a teenager,” said KT’s father, Rodney Harrell, “but there are times when I find myself thinking: I need to be more like him.”Keylon Tobias Harrell has been a consistent presence in a season full of injuries and inconsistency. He is a double-figure scorer (10.5 points per game) who never appears rushed or frantic, whose role has expanded as he has become more comfortable.“There was only one goal for me: to be the best player I could be and help this team win,” said Harrell, as the Cavaliers prepare to face defending national champion and top-ranked Duke at 2 p.m. Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. “That was my main goal. I think I’ve done a pretty good job preparing to help my team win as many games as we possibly can.”Harrell is the most highly touted of Virginia’s crop of six scholarship freshmen. The 6-foot-4 guard was a top-100 recruit coming out of Montgomery, Ala., where he was the Class 4A Player of the Year and the Gatorade state Player of the Year.He’s started 10 of the Cavaliers’ 16 games and has been the leading scorer in five of their past seven games, including last Saturday’s loss to North Carolina.“I’ve enjoyed watching him,” Bennett said. “He’s a very solid young man. I’ve enjoyed seeing his maturation process, of just kind of knowing when to be aggressive and when to let the game come, and that’s continued to evolve. But he’s done a good job for sure over the last (several) games and that’s encouraging.”Bennett and the Harrells developed a relationship before KT set foot in Charlottesville. Bennett and Rodney Harrell discussed life and their shared faith before they ever talked hoops. KT felt so comfortable with Bennett that he canceled all of his planned visits and committed to the Cavs.“I prayed about it a lot,” he said, “and I felt like it was the right choice for me before I even came on a visit. When I came on the visit, I realized I made the right choice. It’s a beautiful school, the academics are wonderful, and the basketball — JPJ (John Paul Jones Arena) — it’s like no other.”Once the Harrells spent time with the coaching staff and particularly with strength-and-conditioning coach Mike Curtis, “that put me at ease,” Rodney Harrell said. Rodney Harrell was a pretty fair point guard himself back in the day, and was a junior-college teammate of former UNLV All-American and NBA star Larry Johnson in Odessa, Texas.He tried not to push his passion for basketball onto KT, but when the youngster showed interest and promise, it was all he could do not to push too hard.When Rodney finally struck a balance between father and trainer, he insisted that his son learn the game “the right way.” He wouldn’t allow KT to shoot 3-pointers until he was strong enough to do so with proper technique — hence the young man’s well-developed mid-range game.“I think the greatest lesson I taught him is patience,” Rodney Harrell said. “He’s also a very good listener. It sounds corny, but a lot of kids today don’t listen. They could make things much easier for themselves if they’d listen to what other people who’ve been through similar experiences can tell them, and KT is very good about that.”KT and Rodney routinely played one-on-one, but KT couldn’t beat his father consistently until well into high school.“He’d tell me if he was younger, he’d put it on me, and I’m pretty sure he would,” KT said with a chuckle. “But I always tell him, you’re not younger, so I beat you. He’d be a little upset because he’s competitive, but at the end of the day, he knows that I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”Harrell plays at a comfortable pace and appears unfazed by the competition and the setting. Part of that is the training he absorbed from his father, part of it the calmness he seems to have inherited from his mother.“He’s very aggressive,” sophomore point guard Jontel Evans said. “Very strong player, very smart player, too. To be so young, he plays like a junior. I saw it from day one in the summer, when he first got here and we played in the gym. I said this guy’s going to be something special.”Harrell and the other freshmen figure to endure more struggles than they’re accustomed to. The Cavaliers were picked to finish 11th in the ACC with their full complement of players. Take away 6-8 forward Mike Scott, out for the season with ankle issues, and the margin for error becomes even thinner and the likelihood of getting exploited greater.“You’ve got to be poised,” Harrell said. “All the freshmen, including myself, we all came here because we wanted to do something special and we know it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s something that’s going to take a little while. We’re here because we want to experience that. We want to go through the ups and downs, because we know in the future it’s going to bring success if we continue to stay humble and work hard.”